November 26, 2009

Voiceover Man
From Van Otis commercials to the big time

Former Van Otis Chocolates co-owner Dave Quinn, 64, is trying a new career path — voiceovers. During his 10 years at Van Otis, he was the voice for Van Otis radio commercials. Quinn spent more than 20 years in the New Hampshire National Guard as a helicopter pilot and was a long-time employee at Dun & Bradstreet, a business reporting company. He was born and raised in Temple. Visit voice123.com/davidquinn.

Q:How did you get involved with voiceovers?
For years, I’ve been involved either directly or in a cursory way … with radio, the entertainment business. … Years ago I worked for a radio station ... in Nashua on a limited basis. A little later on I got involved in doing some entertainment.... Then with my time at Van Otis ... I voiced the radio commercials that I did. Many years ago ... I kind of flirted with getting into voiceovers. ... So then with my departure with everyday involvement with Van Otis, I kind of looked at it and said, “What would you like to do?” I’m certainly not ready for the shuffleboard set yet. I thought, “I’d like to explore this and see if this has some potential.” It’s something I enjoy doing. It’s creative.

What types of projects are you taking on or are you trying to take on?
...It’s quite different than what I had imagined. The reality is, commercials constitute a very small part of the voiceover industry. There’s a whole world of things out there. There’s things on the Internet, narrations, documentaries, corporate work. … Probably the most interesting thing for me, and the most difficult thing for me, is — I look at my background, it has been the typical radio announcer kind of thing, “Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.” That kind of thing. That’s not where voiceover is today. Today, they always say they want the natural approach, more conversational. That sounds easier than it is, because what you get into is voice acting, voice characters. And that doesn’t oft times come naturally. … There’s a company down in New York City called Edge Studios and they offer an introductory ... workshop. ... As I came out of that initial training, they provided me with my first voiceover demo ... I needed to set up some facility to record. ... So I went over and I talked with Patti Ford (pattifordvo.com). Patti is the production engineer at WZID, and when I recorded commercials for Van Otis she was the one that was there. So I spent some time talking with Patti. She has become kind of my mentor. Just been so helpful. [He has an arrangement to use space at Ford’s studio.]

[Quinn had a cochlear implant done in June. The electronic device helps people with severe hearing problems.] How is the implant going?
It is life-changing. I’m the fourth one. My mother has one and my brother and my sister. I was more fortunate because I went much longer in life. The three of them, when they actually got the implant, they couldn’t hear at all. It’s an amazing, amazing thing. Actually still coming up to speed in terms of functionality.

In terms of the hearing, had that been a lifelong issue for you ...?
It developed over the years. Biggest part of the onset was once I turned 40. It had been going down and it was getting progressively worse. I tried to stay on top of the technological developments — lots of money. It’s really a shame how much hearing aids cost. In order to qualify for the cochlear implants the hearing threshold needs to be below a certain level. I had dropped below that level.

What do you like about voiceovers?
It’s a tough business. It’s highly competitive, highly competitive. To put that in perspective, one of the Web sites, Voice123, they’ve got over 80,000 talents registered on that one site. The preponderance of talents are male. It makes it all the more difficult to get one of those auditions, to stand out. ...But it’s good experience. But it’s become clearer to me in order to enjoy some success with this, I’ve got to start to do more work and start in my own backyard, more local...

If you had your pick, what type of projects are you really interested in?
Definitely going for narration for documentaries, corporate training.

How are things going so far?
There are plenty of projects out there…. It’s going perhaps more slowly than I’d hoped. I see this as a longer-term thing, not a flash in the pan. It’s definitely a field where you can make some money. It’s a field that’s growing. And I’m having a lot of fun. I’m learning things... I always find that interesting.

How would you characterize your time at Van Otis?
One of the best jobs and one of the best things that I’ve been involved with. It’s the candy business. I worked harder than I ever worked in my life but I did enjoy it. [He still does consulting on a part-time basis for Van Otis.]  

Looking back over the last 10 years in particular, how have you seen downtown Manchester change?
I go back and I remember during my days with Dun & Bradstreet, there was the Downtown Merchants Association. The conversation was how do we get more business downtown? How do we get more people downtown? The malls were coming in. And it’s interesting to note that today, it’s the same conversation. I think there has been a renaissance and I’m thrilled to see it.  —Jeff Mucciarone